House holds key to immigration reform

3:51 AM,
Jul. 10, 2013

Written by

Erin Kelly
Gannett

The fate of the first major immigration reform overhaul in nearly three decades now rests in the House, where Republicans meet Wednesday to discuss how to proceed on legislation.

The Senate last month passed a sweeping 1,200-plus-page bill that offers a pathway to earned citizenship for many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, doubles the number of Border Patrol agents to about 40,000, increases the number of employment-based visas and mandates that employers use a federal database to ensure their employees are eligible to work here legally.